Cake mix Banana Bread

Have you heard about the Cake Mix doctor? Yes, it is amazing ! I used to bake a lot several years ago and have tried a few recipes from this book. Basically, you are using a boxed cake mix and doctor it up by adding the right ingredients and Voila you get a tasty cake/ muffin.

My colleague, an amazing baker, recently brought this humming bird cake which tasted so good. I was taken aback when she told me she made it from a  boxed cake mix. I went back to my recipe collection and found this easy one to make banana bread.

This is the most moist and quick banana bread one can make.  Try this and trust me you will love this! Ideally you need very ripe banana to make banana bread. I had only 2 of them and used a medium ripe banana for the 3rd one.

Get Ready

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 3 ripe bananas
• 2 tbsp chopped walnuts ( optional)
• 2 tbsp mini chocolate chips ( optional)

Go

• Preheat oven to 350 farenheit and prep your loaf pan by spraying some cooking spray
• Peel and mash the banana and set aside
• Make the cake batter as per the box instructions
• add the mashed bananas, nuts and chocolate chips and fold them in the cake batter

• Pour in the loaf pan and bake as per the box instructions, 45 mins or till a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted in the bread.

• Let it cool completely, I mean completely before you slice and serve.

Your friends and family may think that you worked so hard to bake this out of the world tasting banana bread!

Let us keep them thinking that way !

Tutti Fruti Cake

Tutti Fruti cake needs no introduction to many Indians. It's always available in bakeries across towns and tastes awesome with a cup of Chai! We get this cake in our local Indian bakery. Every time my husband goes there he doesn't stop with buying one.

 Tutti fruti aka candied fruit, pineapple essence and pineapple juice makes this cake so aromatic and flavorful. The moment I saw the recipe at paritaskitchen ,I bookmarked it. Unfortunately got around to doing it now.

So, here goes the recipe! I did not have pineapple juice, but replaced it with mango juice! It still tasted pretty amazing.

Get ready

• 2 cups all purpose flour/ maida
• 1 & 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup tutti fruti mixed with 1 tbsp of flour
• 2 large eggs at room temp
• 1 stick unsalted butter softened at room temp
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp pineapple essence/ extract
• 2 tbsp mango juice

Go:

• Pre heat oven to 350 F, Grease a loaf pan or any pan you want to bake in.
• Whisk all thedry ingredients together ( flour, baking soda and powder)
• Cream the butter and sugar well till light and creamy. takes about 2-3 mins .I used the back of a spatula for this.
• Using a electric hand mixer, add one egg at a time and beat well till they look pale  and creamy.
• Add the pineapple extract, mango juice and mix well.
• Add the milk and flour and gently fold till everything is combined well. do not over beat/ mix.
• Finally add the tutti fruti and fold well.
• Bake for 40 -45 mins or till a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted.
• Allow it to cool well, slice and enjoy.

The hardest part is to wait for the cake to cool. If you rush and cut, the cake will become all crumbly.

Enjoy with tea/ coffee!

2 min Chocolate cake in a mug, Seriously!

2 min Chocolate cake in a mug, Seriously! No kidding!

The Moment I saw this cake here and  there , I was determined to make it.

I liked the idea of adding coffee and used the recipe from not quite nigella.
It looked simple, no fuss and yet a tasty treat. Adding instant coffee bring out a great chocolatey flavor to this cake. The cooking time varies slightly with the power of your microwave. I stringly recommend the initial cooking for 1 min and then increase by 30 seconds as needed. I cooked mine for 1 min and 20 seconds.

Get Ready: ( serves 2 )

• 1 Mug
• 4 tbsp  all purpose flour
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt.
• ½ tsp instant coffee powder (optional)
• 3 tbsp chocolate chips ( optional)
• 3 tbsp milk
• 3 tbsp oil
• A dash of vanilla
• 1 large egg

 Go:

• In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, oil well.
• Add the dry ingredients ( flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, instant coffee powder) and incorporate well.
• Add chocolate chips, vanilla extract.
• Grease 2 coffee mugs with cooking spray.
• Divide the batter into 2 coffee mugs.
• Microwave on high for 1 min. the cake will rise, but will not spill if you use a big mug.
• Cook for additional 30 secs if you need a softer cake, or just 10 secs, if you want a gooey middle.
• Serve warm with vanilla, or coffee ice cream or whipped cream.

Enjoy your Mother's day with this super simple chocolate cake in a mug!

PS: Ask your DH and children to read this post as they can make it in a jiffy too!

This recipe is sure a keeper!

The Ultimate Chocolatey Chocolate cake

If you are a big time chocolate fan, you are in the right place. The ultimate chocolatey moist cake in no time. Yes, it does use some cake doctor principles, hey but at the end you this heavenly chocolate cake to relish! Why couldn't we use some short cuts...!

This recipe makes 1 six inch bundt, 1 9 inch round and 6 cup cakes. I did not havea big bundt pan so I divided the batter and baked them all one time. One I took with me to work, one to share with neighbors and one for ourselves.

 

Get ready:

• 1  package devil's food cake mix
• 2 snack pack butterscotch pudding
• 1 cup  fat free sour cream
• 1/2  cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup low fat milk
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 1 cup butter scotch chips

Go:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, milk, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate, butter scotch chips and pour batter into a well greased  bundt pan.
• Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate If desired, dust the cake with powdered sugar.

It can be served with ice cream or whipped cream and it tastes so yum!

Enjoy your valentine's day or have a dessert for super bowl party with this cake!

Sending this for priyasnowserving




and bookmarked-recipes

Tres Leches Cake

Tres leches or 3 milk cake is a famous latin or mexican dessert. A basic sponge cake soaked in 3 milks is something to die for. I first tasted it in Brooklyn, NY. There was this wonderful bakery in brooklyn where they sell individual servings of TL cake. My husband and my son always wanted to go there for a treat. It was R's birthday and I made this cake for him.

I followed the recipe from here

I, however halved the recipe and I still have some cake left in the fridge.


Get ready:

For the cake

 3/4 th All purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup unsalted butter

For soaking:

1 cup whole milk
1/2 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
3/4 can (12 oz) evaporated milk

For frosting:
Cool whip
mandarin orange slices
maraschimo cherries

Go:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F Grease and flour one 8 X 8 inch baking pan.  You want it with some depth as you will pour the milk in.
• Sift flour and baking powder together and set aside.
• Cream butter or margarine and the 1/2 cup sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and the 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract; beat well.
• Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture 2 tablespoons at a time; mix until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.
• Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes. Pierce cake several times with a fork.
• Combine the whole milk, condensed milk, and evaporated milk together. Pour over the top of the cooled cake.The sponge cake will absorb all the liquids and will be so.. olala lah.....!

For Frosting:

Spread the cool whip pn top of the cake and get creative by decorating with cherries, oranges, kiwi or strawberries.

Enjoy!

Tombstone Cupcakes, Deviled Eyes and a Party!

Halloween is the best holiday next to Christmas! Well, I didn't say this but all my neighbor hood kids did!

A day were all kids get their sugar high and a day when all parents try to pick the one almond joy, or a snickers bars from their kids cauldron!

Hehe... been there done that!

Any way our neighbor had a halloween party and I made tombstone cup cakes and devilled eyes! You should seee the eyes of the kids brightening up as they saw the whole tray!

This time I made cup cakes in ice cream cone, so it was a double yummy treat for them.


Tombstone cupcakes

• Any boxed cake mix
• Ice cream cones ( the ones with a flat base)
• crushed oreo cookies
• Milano cookies broken in half
• Chocolate frosting
• Black, red or any color iceing pen.

• Bake the cake as per box instructions. Instead of sup cake liners use ice cream cones as shown below.
• Once they are cooled, cover with chocolate frosting, Use those little hands to help as they love doing these stuff and licking the knife afterwards.
• Sprinkle crushed oreos which is the dirt.
• Write RIP, or draw a cross on the milano cookies and insert them in the cake. this is the tombstone!
• You could add green sprinkles, as grass, some gummy worms and make it as gross as you want.

The box mix gave 12 cone cakes and the rest i made it as 8" cake. We decoated with mini masrsh mallow ghosts and more oreo dirt.

Placing the foil on the muffin tray, holds the ice cream cones in place and doesn't let them topple over. Keep them in the foil when you are done decoarting the cake to trtansport without any mishaps!

Deviled Eyes:

• Hard boil eggs. omce cooled cut them and take the yolks out.
• Mash the yolks well. add mayonnaise, djion mustard, salt, paprika to the yolk.
• Fill a zip lock bag with yolk mixture.
• Snip off the end and pipe it onto the cut egss.
• Arrange a sliced olive, or fruit loop as I used for theeyeball.
• Draw red lines/ squigges for the blood vesseks with tomato ketchup and a tooth pick.

You sure are gonna be one cool Mom!

Enjoy and Happy trick or treating!

Elaichii is One year old! Celebration with Eggless Chocolate cake!

I am so thrilled that my blog baby is 1 year old. My first recipe post was on the 13th sept, still remember that wonderful feeling reading that first comment!
What a wonderful experience it has been for me! Got to learn a lot about different cuisines, different family traditions, earned  great blogger friends!
I wanted to thank my family,  all my friends both in the blogosphere and outside on this important milestone.

Honestly, I could not have done without you all! A special thanks to Priya Mitharwal for bringing me out with my Almond Chutney ! I wish I had more time on my hand to visit each and every blog page and see all the wonderful things people are cooking and enjoying!

Psst...Let me tell you a secret, I think i have an affair with food and cooking now! I am always checking new recipes, thinking in my mind what to cook etc, etc.....And you know what, my husband doesn't mind this! :))

To celebrate Elaichii's first birthday I made Eggless Chocolate cake with my family! And the special ingredient  was COKE and Vineger!
Please don't say yeww....!
Yup.. you heard it right! It tasted so wonderful. Adding a lit bit of my brewed coffee brought out the chocolatey flavor so well.

Get Ready:

1 & 1/2 cup All peupose flour
3 tablespoon  unsweetened cocoa powder
1 & 1/4  tsp baking powder
1 cup & 3 tbsp Sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp Canola Oil
1 Tbsp Distilled white Vineger
2 tbsp coffee
1cup Coke ( take 2 tbsp out and replace with coffee. You can totally omit this and use 1 cup cold water instead)


Start Cooking:

• Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a round 8" cake pan and dust it with flour.
• Sift, flour, cocoa powder, salt. Mix it with sugar and set aside.
• Whisk all the wet ingredients.
• Add the dry to the wet and blend well using a hand mixer on low speed till there are no clumps.
• Pour it in the greased pan& bake for 25- 30 mins or till a tooth pick inserted at the center comes out clean.
• Cool and remove the cake.
• I did not frost the cake, but when serving used some Hershey chocolate syrup & some whipped topping!

Isn't that cake decadent or what?

Enjoy!

Mango Cardamom Cake

Mango and cardamom are like made for each other. They are a perfect combo in any desert. I wanted to try this in a cake and was inspired by a newspaper cutting that i saved from 6yrs before. It's not a cake from the scratch, but its a quickie and tastes soo good.

So this is what I used plus mango pulp, cardamom and sliced almonds, bought from Indian store.

The important thing is to use a cake mix with pudding added in it. Pilsbury and Betty crocker have pudding added, but not Duncan & Hines. The package says to use 1 stick of butter, 3 eggs, preheat oven to 350F which I followed. it calls for 1 1/4 cup water. I used 1/2 cup of mango pulp and 1/4 cup of water.  I used 4 cardamom and powdered them. Add this to the mixture , dgarnish with sliced almonds and bake as per pack instructions.

if you want you could use some whipped topping as frosting, but we ate it plain and enjoy the mango flavor... Yum yum.....!

I am dedicating this cake to Priya ( yallapantula) who was my first blog friend who has supported me a lot. Thanks a lot priya!

Try this and you won't regret one bit!

BTW this is my 50th post..Yay....!

The Best Banana Bread ever.....

I am very happy today! You know why? I found the best banana bread ever. Thanks to Food Network!

I have been looking an awesome moist BB and found in food network. The 100 odd reviews with 5 stars speaks for itself. I followed the recepie verbatim and the results were unbelievable. Try it for yourself and you will agree with me.


Now, straight to the recipie


Ingredients

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
3 1/2 bananas, very ripe, mashed
2 tablespoons creme fraiche or sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of a loaf pan with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Beat sugar and eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Drizzle in oil. Add mashed bananas, creme fraiche, and vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients and nuts. Pour into a lined loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Eggless Walnut and Date cake

I got this recepie from Aayi's recepie and added my little twist to it.

Ingredients:18 dates(Khajoor)3/4 cup milk 1cup sugar1 cup all purpose flour or maida 1/2 cup oil1 tea spn baking soda1 tbl spn cashews, walnuts dried pineapple chunks, shredded coconut
Method:Soak the dates in warm milk for 20 mts. Add sugar and grind them to a smooth paste along with the milk in which it is soaked in. Add oil and mix.Sieve together flour and baking soda. Add the flour one table spoon at a time and mix slowly. Add the nuts and mix.

Preheat the oven at 350F. Bake the cake in a greased oven proof dish for 35-40min (or till a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean).